Scots Word for February
Kittle
Old Norse kitla means to tickle. There are many parts of the body prone to kittlin. The Caledonian Mercury (11th January 1739) recommends ‘famous Lozenges' for 'kittling of the Throat'. Babies' cheeks and feet are kittled affectionately and in W. D. Latto's Tammas Bodkin (1864) a forward female 'kissed the man..an' kittled his oxters'.
But kittling was not always light-hearted. In J. M. Wilson's Historical, Traditionary and Imaginative Tales of the Borders (1836) 'to kittle underneath the ribs with his poniard' seems less than friendly.
It is not only anatomical areas that are affected. You can kittle up a fire, or trouble. If circumstances kittle up, there is a change for the better. If a person kittles, they give way to temper; in W. Shelley's Wayside Flowers (1868), 'She kittled like a caird [tinker] in drink'. There is kittlin of cat gut in musical circles: D Graham (Collected Writings, 1883) tells us, 'A better violer never scrided on a silken cord, or kittled a cat's tryps [intestines] with his finger-ends' and, in Redgauntlet (1824), Sir Walter Scott lauds 'The best fiddler that ever kittled thairm [intestine] with horse-hair'.
Kittle can mean to perplex or puzzle. Scott in St. Ronan's Well (1824) writes of 'Studying the Bible on the work days, to kittle the clergyman with doubtful points of controversy on the Sabbath'.
Adjectival senses include likely or apt, easily set off (of a mechanism), unpredictable, quick-tempered or even precarious. Allan Ramsay's A Collection of Scottish Proverbs (1776) lists a number of dangerous acts including 'It is kittle to waken sleeping dogs' and 'It is kittle shooting at corbies (crows) and clergy'; but what lies behind the saying 'It is kittle for the cheeks when the hurlbarrow (wheelbarrow) gaes o'er the brig of the nose', other than the painfully obvious, is beyond me. Any suggestions?
The Scots column is written by Director Christine Robinson. You can contact her with any questions.
